Container holder

ABSTRACT

The present containers&#39; carrier consists of a container that can be used to carry groups of cups, soda cans, food holders, etc . . . which with a foldable and disposable laminated structure allows it to be used as a carrying tray for liquid and solid containers, besides having a large outer surface to be used for advertising space.

BACKGROUND

The present invention refers to a carrier for containers, that is, adevice that can be used to carry a group of cups, soda cans, foodcontainers, etc . . . that with a folding laminated structure, and witha disposable nature, allows it to be used as a carrying tray for bothliquid and solid containers and with its large outer area, as anadvertising medium.

In many occasions a single individual needs to carry so many containers,with such quantity of liquid and solid contents in them, that it is verydifficult not to drop some of the contents during the journey. Thisusually happens in unexpected situations in which we lack a tray or bagto make this trip safer; leaving the user limited to perform balancingacts with his/her hands.

The problem worsens when we need to carry hot drinks along with sugarbags, tea bags or spoons, ice creams, hamburgers, fries or popcorn.

Sometimes a transportation medium for these containers is improvisedwith carton trays assembled from paper containers, or even cigarettecardboard boxes. The latter is most often observed in urban businessareas, where it can be seen how a customer carries several cups ofcoffee for his fellow employees in a cigarette cardboard box.

There are some foldable and disposable bag models in the industryconceived for the transportation of food containers, but they lackimportant qualities that make the model that is the object of thispatent, truly useful and necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The device for the transportation of containers that the present patentproposes has been conceived to improve the joint transportation of coldand/or hot drinks as well as food and cans, presenting an outer surfacefrom such characteristics that, if used as an advertising medium itwould allow the production costs to be reduced so much that the devicecould be given free of charge to fast-food restaurants, cafes, sportarenas and sporting events. This way the customers can carry the itemsthey purchase outside the venue to any place they wish, in a safe andcomfortable manner, and at the same time displaying direct advertising.In many fast-food restaurants, cups with liquids are introduced in bagsthat are not ready for such a purpose. Therefore during the journey thecups tend to shake and in many situations its content is dropped, notonly staining the bag but any surface where the bag is standing on.

The model that is described in the present patent is composed of asemi-rigid laminated element, die-cut accordingly so, and by a simple,suitable folding process, it can be configured into a rectangularprismatic unit with circular holes in its upper surface that act asmoulds for the various-diameter cups needed to be carried and, attachedto this surface, two vertical ends with orifices in their ends which actas handles and, on the outer side walls of the unit, two big flaps useto close the sides of the model with a hooking system and inner verticalflaps formed by slots and small flaps, these ones being able to be usedto hold additional containers with side slots, such as pop-corn cups.The unit also includes two pairs of side hooks to improve the locking ofthe unit.

In the center portion of the model pairs of cups may be placed, as wellas other containers or small trays in its interior, and they all getplaced in a unit assembled from the die-cut base sheet, doing thenecessary folding process of the flattened surface to achieve the finalthree-dimensional structure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

To support the description above, and with the purpose of betterunderstanding the characteristics of the invention, it is attached tothe present descriptive memorandum, as an integral part of it, a seriesof drawings with an illustrative and non limiting-purpose, in which thefollowing has been represented:

FIG. 1 shows the development plan of the base sheet for the creation ofthe model and

FIG. 2 shows the frontal views of the model of the previous figure,properly assembled which includes a pop-corn container attached to thesmall hooking flap and

FIG. 3 shows in angle view, the same model with an extended small outerflap with containers inside the model.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Taking a look at these figures, it can be observed that the drinkcarrier is formed by a laminated body in which five differentiatedsectors are defined, where the central sector (a) constitutes the baseof the model, two rectangular sectors (b) are intended to form theholders to carry cups of different-sized diameters (c) for thecontainers and also have the small flaps that will form in its ends themodel handles (e) and (f), and two additional curved flaps (d),attaching system (g) that is ready to hook pop-corn cups that have theircorresponding slots, as well outer advertising panels that the surfaceprovides (h), hooking slots (i), lapels with hooks (j) and pop-corn cupwith hooking slot (k).

The attaching system (g) of the outer flaps may be formed by die-cutlapels that have to be introduced in slots (i) of the curved flaps (d)to form the attachment and to ensure the locking of the model. Theattachment is formed by two pairs of lapels (j) located on the sides ofthe curved flaps (d).

The outer surface of the model will desirably be imprinted withgraphics, or informative or advertising messages.

The inner surface of the model may likewise have imprinted informationof any kind, such as advertising, restaurant recipes, etc . . .

The assembling system is very simple, by beginning with a laminatedstructure that may be observed in FIG. 1, by folding the differentdie-cut areas and performing the attachments (i), (j) of the outer flaps(b), the drink or food containers can be placed in the differentavailable surfaces or openings, as it can be seen in the FIGS. 2 and 3.

Before securing one of the side attachments (i) it is possible tointroduce in the lower space, on top of the surface (a), foodcontainers, as well as additional items such as sugar bags, spoons,restaurant bill, etc, which can be seen in FIG. 3.

Last, the hooking flaps (g) of the attachment system of the outer flapsmay be used as a support for additional containers, such as pop-corncups, that may include a small vertical slot (k) on outer surface.

Within the essence of the invention, it is possible the variation ofdetails, protected as well, and so the amount of openings for the cupscould change, as could the shape of the hooking system or attachment ofthe structural joints and, of course, whatever the dimensions andmaterials used to produce it are.

1. An improved carrier for containers, conceived to act as a hot or coldfood and drink container carrying system, characterized by beingconstituted by a homogenous flat body, which when folded by side die-cutflaps conforms a three-dimensional receptacle, with horizontal surfacesand which incorporates round openings with its edge die-cut in astar-shaped form, so when cups of different diameters are introduced,these stay firm when the edge of the die-cut gets folded towards theinside of the round opening, accommodating to the diameter of theintroduced cup, and because the flaps that include the round openingswith liquids present in their ends slots that, when folded and attachedby a hooking flap, form a handle, which also present at its sides' endsear-shaped flaps, which when introduced in the longitudinal slotslocated on the opposite side flaps conform the fastening and supportmechanism of the improved containers' carrier.
 2. The improved carrierfor containers of claim 1, characterized in that the flaps include theround openings for containers with liquids present at their ends slotsthat, when folded and attached by a hooking flap, conform the handle,which itself also presents at its side ends ear-shaped flaps, which whenintroduced in the longitudinal slots located in the opposite side flapsconform the fastening and support mechanism of the improved carrier forcontainers.
 3. The improved carrier for containers of claim 1,characterized in that a series of round openings with their edgesdie-cut is presented in a star-shaped form, so when cups of differentdiameters are introduced, these stay firm when the die-cut edge getsfolded towards the inside of the round opening, accommodating to thediameter of the introduced cup.
 4. The improved carrier for containersof claim 1, characterized in that it is made of cardboard.